Box of the Month: A New Look for Gosling’s Old Rum

After more than 200 years in business, Gosling’s has gone through their share of packaging; bottles, boxes, cans, and barrels. Their world famous rum has been kept in all sorts of vessels. You might associate Gosling’s with the classic Dark ‘N Stormy® cocktail, but their brand has far more to offer. Take for example, their premium Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum. It’s one of their most coveted products, formerly packaged in a wooden crate to pay homage to the family’s history as seafaring merchants. But in 2018, it was time for Old to become new again, and Gosling’s was in need of a new liquor packaging design.

Klim Design agency came to us to produce a redesigned box for Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum. The objective was to create packaging to better emphasize the iconic bottle within.

Redesigned, Seal’d, Delivered

One of the most distinct features of Gosling’s Rum is the bottle. It’s an unusual shape for the modern market, right? You might even say it’s retro, antiquated, or old fashioned. That’s no mistake.

The legend goes that the first containers for Gosling’s Rum were repurposed Champagne bottles left in Bermuda by British officers of the colonial era, hence the particular shape. Everything about this box was made to accentuate that bottle.

Royal Foil

Before you even open this box, you know what’s inside. The entire bottle is depicted in an oversize black screen printing and no detail is spared. The dimensionality of the cork and the neck, the Gosling’s seal, the writing on the label, right down to the dripping wax synonymous with every bottle of Gosling’s Old Rum. Gold foil decoration adds a regal flair without compromising legibility. And a pronounced band of red across the center of the box draws a little extra attention to the packaging. To recap, that’s three different colors of foil stamping, applied in different stages with varying degrees of heat and pressure on our machines, flawlessly executed by our rockstar team at Taylor.

The inside of the box reveals a few choice packaging accents. That red foil on the exterior is echoed on the inside. Red surrounds the physical bottle of rum, almost illuminating it within the otherwise black packaging. A final round of foil stamping adorns the flipside of the front panel, an extensive amount of copy rendered in perfect clarity. There isn’t a letter out of place, nor a single smudged syllable in that copy.

Liquor Packaging Design for the Modern Market

This box is 100% Made in the USA. Taylor Box represents a domestic, sustainable solution to the design and manufacturing of premium boxes in the liquor industry. On retail shelves, you get a chance to compare and contrast competing brands based on virtue of packaging alone. And within that competitive packaging gauntlet, there are a lot of different techniques on display vying for your attention.

Some bottles have novel shapes, like a skull or a heart. Some rely on virtual reality to wow their customers. Some use premium packaging to convey value.

If this information is accurate, we can infer that consumers rely heavily on liquor packaging design to make their purchasing decisions. After all, what else is informing these consumers? Every brand can’t have a representative in store to evangelize for their product ad nauseum. So that marketing role is left up to the packaging, and by now, consumers are savvy to the cues. The quality and originality of the packaging usually reflects the price point, and with an intricately decorated box like this, it’s plainly clear that this is a premium product.

This box doesn’t rely on eccentricity or flashiness. The packaging is not in the shape of a seal, nor does it have a virtual reality experience for an app on your phone. Like Gosling’s Old Rum itself, this box relies on time-honored techniques and traditional materials. And like Gosling’s Old Rum, it’s craft, not craftiness, that makes this box great.

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